Kathleen Edwards: Hockey rinks and lotsa drinks "i have the biggest crush on andrew w.k.!" laughs kathleen edwards. "hook me up with that guy! all my canadian girlfriends think i'm nuts. they're like, 'what, him?' he looks like he stinks and he's got messy hair. i'm just like, "yeah!" the one thing i don't like is that he punched himself in the nose to get the bloody picture on his album cover - or at least that's what i heard." this isn't the kind of confession you expect to hear from a canadian singer-songwriter whose fine first album failer (zoe/rounder) has drawn enthusiastic comparisons with lucinda williams's work. then again, there's some common ground between the w.k.'s masochistic party boy and the characters found in edwards' songs, who often ease their pain with plenty of alcohol and other, less legal, cure-alls. in cahoots with her band's snarling guitars, Eewards' old-soul voice uses conviction and grit to interpret failer's tales of disappointment. but in person the 24-year-old ottawa native is sweet as can be. with her quick smile and self-depreciating sense of humor, she's endearingly at odds with the hazy loser on the aching "mercury," or the wicked tease on the swinging rocker "westby." in other words, edwards seems like a nice young person. so didn't her mom and dad raise their eyebrows at all the disc's drug references? "one summer i grew pot in my parents' backyard," she giggles. 'The fun part about doing that was enjoying the cat and mouse game that went one between me and them. i was thinking, 'do they know what that is?' and they were thinking, 'does she think we don't know what that is?' they know i did drugs in high school." edwards suddenly catches herself. "hey, wait a minute, are you trying to get me in trouble with customs? because i've got to go back across the border!" then there's the drinking. judging from the way most of the folks on failer see life from the bottom of a glass, you would think edwards needed to have the bottle of jack daniels pried from her fist every night. "some people think i'm an alcoholic based on my songs' subject matter," she says, "i can't help that. when i wrote those songs, i was going to the bar every night. so were all my friends. if anything, the songs aren't about me drinking back then, but about everyone else who still does. my songs are about watching, about me being close to the people that i'm observing and seeing the beauty and the tragedy in their lives." edwards has a keen eye for the telling detail, and describes such moments with an even keener wit. on the swinging rocker "westby," she dismisses a lover with the lines, "if you weren't so old, i would tell my friends/ but i don't think your wife would like my friends." then she steals the poor fellow's gold watch for good measure. "my songs are often directed at a particular person," she admits. "maybe that's why they seem conversational. it's like having a conversation with somebody after arguing with and failing to make my point. instead, i make them in the song because i've actually had time to think about them!" although failer sounds like it was written on booze-stained napkins and performed on edwards' front porch, her background is far more cosmopolitan. she was born the daughter of a canadian diplomat and grew up in both switzerland and korea. she studied classical violin as a child, and arranged the sobbing strings on failer's ballads "hockey skates" and "national steel." as a kid she discovered country via her dad's hank snow and buck owens records, and then moved on to the neil young and bob dylan records of her older brother. when she finished high school in canada, she moved out of her parents' house, got herself an apartment and became a full-time performer. 'The uncertainty of doing stuff on my own was the exciting part of it," she says. "not knowing how i was going to pay rent every month and afford groceries from week to week. in some ways the exciting part of life is not knowing where you're going to be in six months from now." edwards steadily developed her art with help from guitarist pal jim bryson and constant playing of whiskytown's 1997 album stranger's almanac. in 2000 she recorded the building 55 ep with bryson and criss-crossed canada, moving from folk festivals to barroom gigs in her beloved 1988 chevrolet suburban. she's become so identified with the well-worn vehicle that it's featured prominently on failer's album cover. "it's the biggest mother-load you've ever seen in your life," she says. "it's got nice blue velvet bench seats, but i only take up a quarter of the bench. i have to step on the running boards to get in! it's a miracle that it has got me to as many gigs as it has. it was a close call every time." "i've never had an accident," edwards proudly claims. "actually, that's a bit of a lie. i had this small accident when this one kid ran out in the middle of the road in downtown ottawa. i was following this woman.iI couldn't stop as quickly as she could because i drive a ten-ton truck, so i rear-ended her. i told that kid that if we'd been two men drivers, he would have had his ass thoroughly kicked. the little shit!" these days, the suburban is buried under about ten feet of snow. in 2001, edwards relocated to a spot outside wakefield, quebec and wrote failer in her rural retreat. although most of the tunes were dreamed up during the summer, its downbeat mood is redolent of pale winter light, early dusks and the rhythms of small-town life. "it's more about the loner lifestyle than a seasonal thing," edwards says. "i have no neighbors, so it's easy to go a little stir crazy." that changed during the last few months. "somehow i entertained myself quite well this winter, she reports. "i even made a little hockey rink on a pond beside the house. i would pretend i was mark messier! after i'm home for a few days, i unwind and there are no distractions. i don't have cable and the phone's not ringing. i have that nice moment of being able to just write." the song "hockey skates" allows edwards to indulge her fondness for canada's national sport and take a tilt at the macho personalities who thrive on it. with her leery drawl and bryson's twangy guitar motif, it sounds like bruce springsteen if he was an ottawa senators fan. "i always wished that i had played hockey, even though i grew up overseas," says edwards. 'that song captures the feeling of those monday nights when the boy's club would play on the neighborhood rinks, and i never got asked to go!" failer's "one more song the radio won't like" comes out of edwards' frustrating experiences courting record labels, and while some of her music may be too emotionally raw to fit between santana and no doubt, the buzz about her is getting louder.credit support from public radio and an appearance on the late show with david letterman. powered by the disc's eloquence, edwards was also afforded next big thing status by rolling stone. she's quick to offer a reality check, however. 'The last time i toured canada, there were some gigs where i played to ten people." "i'm not daunted by what's happening right now," she says with a matter-of-fact fortitude. "i don't think of being on david letterman as this big event, like, 'oh my god, how am i going to get through it?' he's a rich guy with a very popular show, but he's still just a guy. and i'm still gonna be who i am before and after i do the show. to me, paying rent is more important than being on david letterman. it's more daunting, too. c. bottomley and jim macnie vh1.com				Album reviews Feature articles Interviews Show reviews